Maternal and Newborn Health

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal mortality ratio in the world-approximately 1,000 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. The neonatal mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in the world with approximately 45 deaths per 1,000 live births. Without greater attention to maternal and neonatal health and implementation of effective interventions, mothers and newborns will continue to die from preventable and treatable conditions or suffer debilitating disabilities.

Africa's Health in 2010's approach to improving maternal and neonatal health focuses on promoting integrated essential maternal and newborn care from the household to the hospital with outreach to the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. Within this, the project focuses on policy initiatives including the promotion of evidence-based standards and guidelines, the development of policies, norms and protocols at the national level, and legislative change to strengthen the enabling environment for safe motherhood. The project also concentrates on performance and quality improvement approaches to strengthen service delivery and to link informed communities to care. Community involvement, through behavior change initiatives including mass media, social mobilization, and alliance building is central to the project's efforts to improve maternal and newborn health by linking informed/demanding communities to quality care.

The project provides technical assistance to African institutions, networks and other partners to:

Document and synthesize best practices in community-based interventions, (e.g., integrating newborn care with Maternal and Child Health (MCH), Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV infection, and post-partum care
Intensify evidence-based advocacy to show that MNCH community programs can achieve impact at scale
Disease surveillance and epidemic response, including preparedness and response to avian influenza
Raise awareness about the systems needed to underpin sustained community approaches
Work with African and other organizations to strengthen social mobilization and behavior change communication (BCC), for example, targeting men and grandmothers to improve care-seeking, and social marketing of essential products for home prevention and treatment

Africa's Health in 2010 maternal and newborn health team focuses on the following priority areas:

Awareness raising to mobilize resources and improve the policy environment
Adoption of quality integrated maternal and newborn health (MNH) care
Adoption of community approaches
Strengthening African regional and national capacity to implement programs

Saving Mothers, Newborns and Children

Inadequate access to skilled care has been implicated for the growing incidents of maternal and neonatal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. In response to this problem, AFR/SD worked with Africa’s Health in 2010 to partner with several institutions to advance child survival and improve maternal, newborn and child health in sub-Saharan Africa. Read More (PDF)

Active management of the third stage of labor (AMTSL)

Lowering Maternal Death in Sub-Saharan Africa
The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) and Africa’s Health in 2010 advocate the use of Active Management of Third Stage of Labor (AMTSL), a high-impact, low-cost intervention, to reduce post partum hemorrhage and maternal deaths. Read More (PDF)

Read more about our work with The Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI) to promote AMTSL in Uganda.

See more about REDUCE-ALIVE

REDUCE-ALIVE is a participatory process and advocacy tool to influence policy actions to reduce maternal mortality and increase newborn survival. Developed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), this tool raises the profile of women's and newborn health and identifies actions that champions can take to advocate for changes in health policies.
Please click here to visit the REDUCE-ALIVE website, or download the brochure in English or French.

Publication Quick Links

Opportunities for Africa's Newborns (Executive Summary)
June 2008

This Website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Africa's Health in 2010 Project, managed by the Academy for Educational Development, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.